Product Review -L'oreal Paris Infaillible Total Cover Concealer Palette - First Impressions and swatches

 Welcome back, or if you haven't visited me before, welcome!  Today I'm going to share my first impressions of the L'oreal Paris Infaillible Total Cover Concealer Palette, with some swatches and comparison swatches included, as a (hopefully) helpful guide to shades.  I was sent this product by Social Soup to try out and review, but all opinions are honest and my own ;)

I'm intending to do regular swatch posts here on my blog, as I find this really helpful myself, when choosing foundation and concealer shades.  For reference, I have a medium complexion with neutral olive leaning to warm olive undertones, my best foundation matches (so far!) are NC25(winter) - NC30(summer) in MAC, W3 in L'oreal Lumi Magique, W4(summer) in L'oreal True Match, 54 Beige in Bourjois Healthy Mix and 220 Natural Beige in Maybelline Fit Me. In concealers, I wear Nars (both creamy radiant and soft matte) in custard - a perfect match in winter, somewhat brightening, but still fine, in summer.

The Total Cover Concealer palette is packaged in a sturdy plastic container, it comes with three concealer shades and two corrector shades, as pictured below.  I've swatched it onto my inner forearm, to give an idea of coverage and shade.  It's currently autumn here in Australia, so this is on my NC30 summer skin.  I believe that this product retails at around the AU$30 mark, for 10g of product.
     

L'oreal palette swatches

The swatches pictured were done with my Sigma concealer brush, the product is soft and creamy to apply.  The three concealer shades have a natural finish, I'd call this a medium coverage concealer.  The correctors are super pigmented, I'm thinking a light hand will be called for!  I tried swatching these with a finger as well, which gives somewhat more coverage.  

I have a strong preference for sheer to light-medium coverage foundations, but when it comes to concealer, I want some really solid, bombproof coverage!  My main 'concealing' area is the inner corner of my eye, as I have deep purply shadows there, an entirely genetic issue and notoriously difficult to cover!  My benchmark for concealers are the Nars concealers;  they have amazing coverage and longevity, without looking cakey or breaking up on the skin.  My budget concealer choice is the Essence camouflage cream concealer - great coverage and really inexpensive, but a little on the heavy side and takes a while to set down once applied. 

As you can see in the swatches below, the two deeper concealer shades from the palette are just slightly deeper than the Nars concealers in Custard and a little less yellow toned - a pretty good match for my summer skin tone.  Definitely less coverage than the Nars or Essence, but feels weightless on the skin and looks very natural.  I applied some of the deepest shade from the palette to the inner corner of my eyes and the coverage was actually pretty decent!  I think that this could be a really nice choice if I'm only spot concealing, or wearing a light cushion foundation or BB cream.  Given how comfortable it is on the skin, I'm also wondering if it might work well as an eyeshadow primer?  I think I'll give it a try and find out.  

 From top to bottom - Essence camouflage cream concealer in 10 Natural Beige (2 shades),Nars soft matte complete concealer in Custard, Nars radiant creamy concealer in custard and the bottom 5 shades are from the L'oreal total cover concealer palette.  

Once I've tried out this palette a little more, I'll update on longevity and whether it might be a candidate for eyeshadow priming duties ;)   Thanks for reading!